Welcome to a New Year & Welcome to self-care!

We are well into 2020 now and I wanted to share with you my goal to bring self-care into the forefront of my studio practice… mostly as an accountability thing, but also as a way to highlight the essential need for all of us to incorporate meaningful self-care into our day to day lives.

In the media, self-care is about bubble baths & face masks, and moments of escape. To me, self-care is about creating a life that doesn’t need escaping… that doesn’t suck us dry with overwork and over-doing. A life that isn’t all about the hustle and how busy we are.

Self-care is about incorporating rest and nurturing acts into our day, every day. It’s about incorporating the things that fill us up into our day, every day. It’s about taking each of those 15 minute breaks that the health & safety/employment rights folk tell us we’re “entitled” to and leaving work feeling we have done our best no matter what the rest of the to-do list looks like.

Self-care is a mindset practice that puts our own emotional and physical needs at the forefront of our planning for every day. No matter what. It is a mindset I am cultivating this year, I am ready to take actual steps to do this for myself because I have noticed that I’m darned good at doing it for other people… so why not for me too??

Heck, the core of my mission for Spiral Tide Pottery is to encourage self-care through helping you to slow down and take a moment for yourself. Every moment you sit down to sip a cup of coffee or enjoy a meal from a piece of handmade pottery enriches your day and adds up to a life well-lived. So this year I’m doing this for myself too.

2019 brought a series of health concerns that I need to manage in my day to day life so if ever I needed permission to put self-care first, I have it. What will help you put yourself first???

Have a wee think about that and make changes. Add one thing in this month, and another in next month. See how it changes day to day life for you and let me know how you’re getting on.

Until next time,

Avesha.

Happy May!

Here in the UK, May is Mental Health Awareness Month.  

It’s a month to help release the stigma surrounding mental and emotional health and shepherd in the awareness that creating space for the daily nurturing of our mental and emotional health is an essential requirement for happiness, empathy and compassionate living. 

And, you know what’s neat?

Nature is reminding us of this all the time, if we pay attention.  The sun always rises slowly, it always takes time to set beautifully… the birds always take time to sing in and out each new day as though it’s their first one. 

For me, being outside in nature is an essential part of my mental and emotional health toolkit and it keeps me centered in the studio as well.  Being outside reminds me to get out of my head and into my body,  just like our dog Remi does when we’re out walking… she is such a good role model for being in the moment!

I encourage you to take time each day this month to give your mental and emotional health the space it needs to flourish… even if it’s just taking a moment to breathe deeply and listen to the birds sing, those moments add up! Perhaps you’ll love it so much you’ll continue throughout the year, wouldn’t that be great? 

Check back in here throughout the month, I’ll be sharing some simple top tips from my work in the mental health arena for putting your mental and emotional health on the top of your to-do list.

For now, get outside as much as you can and please do share some of your own top tips for mental and emotional health in the comments below.

Until later,

Avesha